Drive a Tesla? There's an app for that

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Some Tesla owners already think of their EVs as mobile devices with apps, and to reinforce that worldview, there's a new app that wants to crank up the efficiency of those mobile devices to "eleven," a number that might or might not be trademarked at the present time.

The Teslab app connects to a Tesla-produced four-wheel mobility solution and then goes to town on the data collected by the EV. The app distills that information to a range of different efficiency metrics, displaying efficiency graphs over a map to show the driver where he or she were using the electric juice well, and where they were wasting power.

"You install the app and drive your car like you normally would," Teslab says. "The app keeps track of many parameters your car shares, and takes that info and breaks it down into interesting metrics that you can use to satisfy your driving needs."

The variety of metrics Teslab can display also tackles range anxiety, showing a comparison between the battery miles and actual miles traveled. There is a community feature as well, which can let drivers compare how efficiently they are using their four-wheeled mobile devices compared with other users of mobile devices. So there can an element of efficiency competition if you're into that sort of thing.

The Teslab app will display numerous helpful metrics about your driving. Just don't look at your phone while you're driving. Photo by Teslab

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"Efficiency is our measure of how your car is performing against how the car is rated to perform," Teslab says. "For example, if the car claims you can drive 200 miles, you drive 10 miles, and the car claims you can now drive 190 miles, your efficiency would be under 100 percent. Conversely, if you drive 10 miles and the car claims you can drive 195 miles, the efficiency would be above 100 percent. Things that can affect efficiency include acceleration, average speed, braking and weather."

The app is still in beta stage, but the developers claim that a lot of owners have signed up. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the app is that Tesla itself has not created a largely similar app to judge your efficiency.